December 06, 2009

Bumbling Bears take 'winning ugly' to an extreme vs. Rams

Lovie Smith will want to lecture again that there are no ugly victories.

OK, how about empty victories?

Unsatisfying?

Whatever, good luck getting excited about a 17-9 win over a 1-10 team at home, Smith notwithstanding.

“We feel good about where we are,’’ Smith said, and what he really meant was he felt good that it was Kyle Boller instead of Marc Bulger back there.

The Bears had a halftime lead and it looked painful. Apparently, it was painful even for the Bears, who refused to take a shot downfield from their own 34 with 66 seconds remaining in the first half. Way to show confidence in the offense.

The Bears ran the ball better than they usually do, but still not as well as everybody else does against the 1-10 Rams. And not as well as the 1-10 Rams did, either.

But they won, which puts a dent in the Lovie Smith Unemployment Tour. Then again, when you consider that the Bears’ three wins in the last two months have come against teams that entered Sunday with a combined record of 3-29, the Tour still might have legs.

The Bears fumbled on their first offensive series and jumped offside on their first defensive series. So much for being ready to start a game.

Jamar Williams had himself a day with 18 tackles and two passes defended. One of the passes was intercepted by Hunter Hillenmeyer. The three backup linebackers played like starters.

Overall, the defense gets some credit for stopping a bad team the way they should have. Of the Rams’ 13 drives, seven started at their own 40 or better, but the Bears held them to two field goals and three punts, to go along with a fumble and an interception. Even then, the Bears still had to sweat. It’s amazing the agony they can inflict even when doing something mildly good.

Adewale Ogunleye sacked Boller on the first series. Of course he did. The Rams are a bad team with a weak right tackle, which the Bears hadn’t seen in a while, which explains why it was Ogunleye’s first sack in two months. But still, Ogunleye let Boller run through his arms two other times. That’s some contract drive.

Jay Cutler underthrew Devin Hester, but Hester leaped to grab a 48-yard completion. The most impressive part of the play, however, wasn’t that Hester made the adjustment, but the fact that Cutler had the time to throw a bomb. That was reason enough to stop the game and retire Frank Omiyale’s number.

Cutler was 8-for-17 for 143 yards and a touchdown, finishing with a quarterback rating of 96. Looks like the numbers of a game manager to me. Was Cutler brought in here to be a game manager? Truth is, Cutler’s numbers look better when you include a pass-interference call on a throw to Johnny Knox near the goal line. The Bears should’ve benefitted from three other apparent pass-interference plays, but the Bears' receivers apparently get as little respect from the refs as they do from almost everyone else.

I couldn’t understand why the Bears almost never run bootlegs with Cutler, but based on what I saw Sunday, they apparently telegraph those as blatantly as they do their wide-receiver screens.

Bears third-and-8 at their own 9, and Cutler hit Earl Bennett over the middle for a first down, and a lot more. The dogbreath Rams lost Bennett, who was heading for the end zone. But no. He had no speed. And then he had no ball, as the Rams punched it out. The Bears finished with a lucky 71-yard play when the ball bounced out of bounds. And then they still couldn’t get anything more than a field goal in the red zone. Again, even the good stuff is agonizing with this bunch.

Bears third-and-goal at the 9, and Cutler threw to Hester along the right side of the end zone. Hester made a one-handed grab, but got only one foot in-bounds. Shouldn’t the Bears’ proclaimed No. 1 receiver have shown far better footwork?

Bears third-and-2, and the Bears can’t block a run blitz. But wait. It gets dumber. Before the Bears could punt on fourth down, they had to call a timeout because someone didn’t know he was supposed to be on the field. On the previous Rams punt, the Bears had only 10 men on the field for the return. How can you look so inept against one of the most inept teams in the league? Is it that the coaches can’t coach or the players’ can’t listen?

Hester fair-caught a punt at his own 6. Does Hester have a bonus clause for dumb plays? On another, he fielded it with room to run and proceeded to lose three yards because he did this side-to-side garbage that hasn’t worked for several years. His best punt situations came when he didn’t touch the ball. Remember when everyone except the Bears feared Hester on punt returns?

Then, on the Bears’ first offensive play of the second half, Hester lost four yards and fumbled on an end-around. Oh, and Hester also hurt an ankle on the play and had to leave the field. Quality stuff.

But wait. There’s more. When Bennett replaced Hester on one punt, he, too, decided to try to catch one inside his 10, fumbling at the 5 before recovering at the Bears’ 3. Ridiculous is contagious.

Gaines Adams was inactive Sunday, but then, he’s been inactive since he got here. That’s some value for a second-round pick.

Zack Bowman delivered a great hit on Brandon Gibson after a catch, popping the ball right to Al Afalava, who raced down the right sideline 42 yards to the Rams’ 16. Naturally, the Bears had to settle for a field-goal try that became a fake field goal that fooled no one. I didn’t mind the fake field goal as much as I minded another stretch of fake offense by the Bears. I’m telling you, the Bears’ offensive decisions and subsequent execution are the reasons someone made crystal meth.

Want to know how bad Boller is (and consequently how bad the Bears were in letting the Rams stay within two touchdowns all game)? Here’s how bad: With that flip to Greg Olsen on a fake field goal that gained zero yards, Bears punter Brad Maynard had a 79.2 quarterback rating that was better than Boller’s 48.

Bears third-and-goal at the 3, and Cutler hit Bennett for a touchdown, the first of Bennett’s career. The Vanderbilt connection made it 17-6 and gave you confidence the Bears could finish at least third in the SEC.

Posted at 06:47:48 PM

Comments

How many times have we seen this in the past? We have a mediocre team that somehow manages to get its act momentarily together in the second half of the season to get somewhere near .500 and blow any chance of a good draft pick. Although that draft pick order isn't a question next year, this little mini-surge might, somehow, in the eyes of management, be enough of a hopeful sign that they don't ditch the coach and his staff. Please, no! Lovie and his boys, nice guys tho they may be, have got to go. This is a terrible team and it ain't gonna get no better with them in charge. Simple Truth. Good luck to us all.

As Lovie says "The second half is our half. The weather gets cold and that's Bear weather". Boy, I guess he showed us. He probably started talking playoffs to the team at halftime. This team and it's management needs a total shake up after this season. Are you listening Virginia????

Ho hum, nothing will change until the stands are empty and McCasky sells the team to somebody that would actually make the necessary changes, we all know what they are, so the Bears can become a legitimate member of the NFL.

A win's a win. They can't benefit from a poor record in the draft, so at least go for 8-8. You can pretty much cancel the last game of the season out unless the Vikings do what the Bears did in 2005 & 2006, and rest their starters.

Since you brought up the refs, can you explain why the NFL hires these guys?

For example, the average Refs pay per game is between $2500-$3500 depending on experience level. Multiply that times 16 reg. plus 4 pre-season games, and thats a decent salary for a lot of Americans.

Why not go after young athletes, train them to be refs, employ them full time, all year, let them be held more accountable for their flag throwing (or lack of)?

I am sure you'd fine qualified ppl to do that job on a regular basis. Who are these part time, old, out of shape guys? What is their real job?????

NFL product borders on a joke because of the calls made or missed by part time refs. Who probably are just egomaniacs, whom tell their granddaughter, "hey, watch me, i'm going to make a lot of calls tonight....."

Even if the NFL only paid $60K a year to refs, a lot of men between 25-35 would apply. You could work them all week too.

Naturally, the Bears had to settle for a field-goal try that became a fake field goal that fooled no one. I didn’t mind the fake field goal as much as I minded another stretch of fake offense by the Bears. I’m telling you, the Bears’ offensive decisions and subsequent execution are the reasons someone made crystal meth.

See that AZ Cardinals defeat of Vikings tonight? Funny, The Bears fired Rod Graves about 7 years ago. Since then, he has built a Super Bowl team out of NOTHING !! First he hired a quality coach, then gave nice contracts to PRODUCTIVE players of GREAT CHARACTER, not being a character. Geez, seems like the Bears hire the wrong people and fire the wrong people.

Rosey...
Lovie meant what he said.
"“We feel good about where we are,’’ Smith said, and what he really meant was he felt good that it was Kyle Boller instead of Marc Bulger back there."

He does feel good where he is. He is totally satisfied with having 5 wins at this time of the year. He is totally happy that he can't coordinate the defense.
He is totally happy at being snowed, not knowing what to do. He is totally happy at being lost.
Hope he is totally happy at getting fired....with $11 million still being owed to him.

Man...we got to get this guy out of this town. I can't stand him anymore. You could fall asleep listening to whatever he has to say.

Rosey...keep up the good work on Lovie, angelo and phillips. Maybe the McCaskys will take the time to read what you have to say. They surely on listening to us fans.

Good stuff and thx - I can no longer waste time and watch the games. Your comments, report and evaluation justifies further non participation for me. Its good since you get paid to do it. You know the saying " a dog reflects its owner". That's the Bears!!

Rosie,
I didn't know that irony could drip but you proved me wrong. Did you happen to hear Lovie's post game puff? Now that's losing reality in a big way. Forte runs in for a TD!!! After how manytries from the 1 or 2? I can't see the game here in the Carolinas but.
Thanks for seeing through the fog.

About the author

They tell me I have to write this bio thing to go along with my blog. Not sure you care, but the bosses apparently do, so here you go:

I've covered sports for more than 30 years in print, on radio and now in cyberspace. In that time, I've smoked cigars with Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka and Red Auerbach, I've been thrown on a table by NHL all-time bad boy Dave "Tiger'' Williams, I've covered the Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, I've had former Bears lineman Stan Thomas act like he was going to squeeze my head like a zit, I've interviewed Roger Clemens, Hank Aaron and Donald Trump, I've been cursed at by Mike Keenan, I've watched Denis Savard go into the Hockey Hall of Fame, I've been yelled at by Bill Wirtz, I talked sports with Ben Affleck at the World Series of Poker, and I cry almost every time I see Jim Craig skate up the ice looking for his dad in the stands as the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team wrote the greatest sports story ever. Ever.